Chapter 26

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Harry and Hermione headed through the barrier into the muggle part of the station to meet her parents.

"Do you think they'll be happy with us staying with them?" Harry asked again, remembering the scene at Christmas.

"We haven't got any shocking new news for them this time and they should have got used to our marriage by now, they were starting to come around towards the end of the Christmas holidays, and their letters have been neutral when they mentioned you," Hermione said optimistically.

The Grangers both greeted Harry politely and without surprise asking him how his year had gone and how he thought he'd done in his exams and the four of them had a pleasant conversation as they loaded both of their trunks into the car and journeyed back to Crawley.

-o0o-

Hermione gave Harry a stern look and shook her head when her father very pointedly put Harry's bags in the guest room before carrying Hermione's bags into her bedroom. "Don't say anything tonight, I'll get it sorted. Let me talk to Mum on our own," she whispered.

Harry blushed and nodded. "It's okay Hermione, I don't want to make them angry. I can sleep in the guest room."

"It's not okay! You didn't get a single decent night's sleep without me last time we were there and they need to start treating you as my husband, not some temporary house guest," Hermione said crossly. "We'll go and start getting Grimmauld place sorted out this week so we have a place to stay if it gets too uncomfortable here."

"Hermione, no. I don't want you to fight with your parents because of me," Harry replied, as he had every time Hermione brought up her parent's reactions to their marriage.

"It won't be because of you. It will be because they're being ignorant asses about my marriage," Hermione said determinedly.

"Hermione, I don't have a family, other than you. Not one single person that I ever want to see again, and it's a lousy feeling. Your parents are going to be our kids' only grandparents, don't you want that for them. This isn't a big thing, it's not worth alienating your parents about."

"It's not about the opportunity to sleep together or whether they think we're having sex, Harry. Their lack of respect for our marriage is a big thing!" Hermione argued. "We need to begin as we mean to go on and make them treat us as a couple or they'll always think that our relationship isn't real and it will go away if they ignore it for long enough."

"Okay but please lets at least get through one family dinner before you start a fight with your parents," Harry begged.

"Okay Harry, I want to talk to Mum on my own and get her onside before tackling Dad anyway," Hermione compromised giving Harry a quick kiss on the mouth.

True to her word Hermione tried hard to be her normal self, telling her parents about her studies and the events that had happened at school.

Her chatter all sounded normal to Harry, but Daniel and Emma were aware that not a single event or even comment about school work didn't also involve Harry, and Harry's opinions and feelings as well as her own whether she encouraged him to speak up for himself or just reported what his reactions had been. They let it slide for now, hoping that Hermione was just trying to include Harry in their conversation, but it was clearly obvious that far from having argued and being on the brink of dissolving their marriage, the two young people were even closer than they had been at Christmas time.

-o0o-

"Did Ron decide on a best man? I think that Percy would be the most sensible choice if he doesn't want all of them to be groomsmen. Bill and Charlie will arrive too late for the fittings, and we don't want to encourage the twins to prank him before the ceremony," Molly stated as soon as she thought Arthur was distracted enough to just agree with her if Ron hadn't made a decision himself.

"Ron doesn't want to have a best man. Eloise doesn't have a sister or a best friend she wanted to be maid of honour so they've both decided to go without," Arthur said, looking up from the letter he was writing. He wondered whether the pregnancy was making Molly less observant, or less in touch with reality, there was no way Ron would agree to stand up with Percy as his best man.

"Ginny could be maid of honour," Molly said cheerfully.

"No Molly. It is Ron's wedding and Ron doesn't want a best man at all unless he can have Harry as his best man, and he thought you were still too upset with Harry and Hermione for him to ask his best friend without it causing trouble. But if you insist on him having a best man and promise not to create a scene about his choice, I'm sure Harry will forgive him the last minute notice and be honoured to agree to be best man and Eloise can ask a friend to be matron of honour, I'm sure she has someone she would prefer to have than Ginny. Hermione would be happy to stand up with her if she doesn't have anyone else she wants to ask at the last moment, Ron said they're becoming quite good friends and it would be a lot less awkward for Harry and for Ginny not to have to stand up together," Arthur said firmly letting Molly know he would not allow her to force Ron to change his mind, nor would he countenance Ginny being pushed into maid of honour opposite Harry.

Molly's face darkened with anger. "I'll not have that heartbreaking selfish…"

"Stop that Molly! Stop trying to rewrite the truth, Ginny and Harry broke up when our daughter made it clear she wasn't willing to marry Harry last year to avoid the ministry matches because she wanted a big white wedding in the orchard, and quite frankly her unwillingness to give up the wedding of her dreams for the supposed man of her dreams does not speak to me of true and abiding adult love, at most she had a schoolgirl crush on him and she wasn't ready to become the woman or the wife he needed. Ron at least agreed to try to bond with Hermione but he and Hermione weren't compatible enough for a bond to form so it's for the best that they aren't married to each other.

It wasn't selfishness that motivated Harry to marry Hermione but an honest desire to help out a friend, and fear of whom the ministry would match them both with. He has sacrificed himself again and again for his friends, and if anyone got their heart broken over the end of Harry and Ginny's relationship it should have been Harry who was trying to ask Ginny to marry him when she turned him down flat before he even finished getting the words out. He warned her that he would have to ask someone else if she wouldn't try to bond with him, and she refused to listen to him. I know Ginny's had her dreams shattered but it's entirely her own fault, and her heart can't really be broken by a boy she turned down and literally broke up with while he was trying to propose," Arthur said, finally driven to the end of his patience.

"Harry and Hermione will be at Ron's wedding and you and Ginevra will be civil and pleasant to them or you will face the consequences. I will not pay for the big white fancy wedding you and Ginny want, if she ruins Ron's wedding day with her histrionics or you fly of the handle at Ron's best friends. Either the two of you both try to do everything within your abilities to make sure Ron has a happy wedding day or Ginny can get married in the living room with just the immediate family present and her favourite normal family meal for the wedding breakfast."

A lot of people thought that Arthur was a pushover the way he let his wife run his life and his family, and the truth is he often backed down because he liked a peaceful life but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of laying down the law and forcing his family to abide by it when it mattered. He was an honourable man and hearing about the trickery Molly must have used to have Harry and Hermione excluded from the guest list was a step he was not prepared to let stand.

"You wouldn't! You wouldn't do that to your only daughter!" Molly screeched.

"Ginny's not the only child of mine that deserves a happy wedding day, and I wouldn't be the one doing it to Ginny. I've warned you so it's your decision whether you are civil to Ron's friends and don't ruin his wedding day for him so Ginny can have the wedding you want or not. From what I've seen our daughter would just as happily stand and be married in sackcloth and ashes in the attic as an expensive wedding robe in front of all her friends, since Harry cannot be the groom which considering she broke up with him over his inability to wait for the summer so she could have the wedding you're planning is quite ironic. You're the one excited about organising the wedding so I'm warning you. Ron deserves the wedding he wants just as much as Ginny does and the only thing he has asked us for is for his friends to be welcomed at the wedding. I for one intend to make sure that happens. If you can't put your own resentments aside and behave at his wedding in front of his friends because that's what a decent mother would do, then maybe you will do it for Ginny's sake. It's been six months and it only hurts Ginny and Ron when you continue to keep making such a fuss over a situation they had accepted."

"Ginny's still heartbroken and Ron's getting married because he has to, and he's marrying a girl picked by the ministry. That doesn't mean they're over Harry or Hermione," Molly protested.

"Ginny might be apathetic about her wedding next summer which is understandable when she doesn't even know who the groom will be yet and there's still plenty of time for her to get involved closer to the day, but she has been in a new relationship since Harry got married so she's not entirely heartbroken over Harry, she's just as likely to be morning the loss of her new boyfriend who is also now married to someone else. Ron has made his peace with Harry and Hermione and their friendship is as strong as ever, and the four of them spend enough time together for Eloise to consider Harry and Hermione her friends as well. He isn't pining for Harry's wife," Arthur retorted.

"Your coddling is the reason they're both so unprepared to meet this responsibility, Molly. Every other sixteen year old in the country is in the same boat and from what I've seen and heard most of them are doing a better job of making the best of it than your youngest son and daughter."

Molly stood there in shock as Arthur walked away. She understood that he meant every word of what he said and that she'd have to make sure Ginny would be on her best behaviour at the wedding.

-o0o-

Harry was almost asleep when Hermione crawled into his bed and wrapped herself around him. He sleepily snuggled into her and smiled. "Night Hermione."

"Goodnight Harry," Hermione replied.

The next thing that he knew it was early morning. Harry was used to being up with the dawn for Quidditch training, or duelling practice or something, so he came alert fairly quickly and realised where they were and that Hermione needed to be upstairs in her own bed before her parents woke up if she wanted to be able to talk to them calmly about this without a confrontation.

"Hermione, wake up," he whispered, shaking her lightly.

"Hmm, Harry," Hermione protested sleepily, trying to turn away from him and burrow under the covers.

Harry ruthlessly pulled the blanket away. "You haven't spoken to your parents about us sharing a bed yet! Do you want to get caught down here or do you want to be upstairs in your own bed before your parents get up? I don't think letting them find you in my bed is the best way to approach the situation," he asked bluntly.

Hermione yawned, "Dad will already be awake, we should get up and put the kettle on," she said climbing reluctantly out of bed and tying her dressing gown around her.

Harry slid into his pyjama jacket and they silently slipped down the stairs. Hermione put the kettle on and started fussing with the teacups while Harry started making French toast for breakfast. It's almost done before Hermione's dad came down and Hermione hands him a cup of tea and herds him towards the table.

"I didn't hear you come down," Daniel Granger commented.

"It was early, probably before you woke up," Hermione replied without blushing. Luckily Harry was still facing the stove or the shock on his face might have given them away.

He slid a plate of food in front of Daniel and one in front of Hermione as Emma entered the room.

"That smells amazing Harry but please know that you do not have to get up early to cook for us," Emma said cheerfully.

"I enjoy cooking and I don't get the chance at school, and I'm used to being up early for quidditch practice so I was up anyway," Harry reminded his in-laws.

-o0o-

Molly might have inwardly raged over Arthur's ultimatum but she knew he meant business and made no other outward objection to Harry and Hermione attending Ron's wedding. She warned Ginny what her father had threatened to do if either of them made a scene about Harry and Hermione being present, and hoped that would be enough. Molly was sure that while Ginny said she didn't care about her wedding now, she would care greatly next summer as the day approached.

Ginny found that she actually was pleased that Harry would be at Ron's wedding even if he was attending with Hermione as his date. It would give him another opportunity to see what he'd thrown away by marrying the muggleborn. He'd always wanted to be part of her family and she looked forward to him having to watch as her family rallied around to protect her showing him exactly how much he'd lost. In return for not throwing a huge fuss she tried to persuade her mother that she deserved a brand new more sophisticated dress to wear to Ron's wedding. The dress she had for her other brother's weddings was okay but it was important that she look fabulous if she was going to show up Granger.

Molly was sympathetic and easily persuaded but surprisingly Arthur put his foot down.

"Remember Molly it will be you and me that will be eating sausages and beans an doing without for months once the children go back to school to pay for all this wedding frivolity," Arthur said tiredly.

"You're going to wear the same dress to all four of your children's weddings so there's no reason at all for Ginny to have another new dress. The one you've already brought for her looks lovely and very appropriate, cast a colour charm on it if she wants something different."

"Cast a colour charm. As if I could get the fabric to look like this quality if I started mucking around with the colours. I'm sure Hermione will have a new dress for the wedding," Molly exclaimed crossly.

"Harry and Hermione decided not to have a wedding reception, so Hermione's parents don't have to pay for a wedding this summer let alone help pay for three weddings this year and one next summer as well, and we still need to pay school fees for Ron and Ginny for next year," Arthur reminded his wife.

-o0o-

In Crawley the dress discussion was equally contentious, though it was going very differently, Harry thought as her husband it was his responsibility to buy Hermione's summer clothes and Daniel Granger was insisting that Emma would be taking Hermione shopping as she always had and he would be providing party dresses for his daughter, dresses that he approved of.

"I'm happy for Emma to take Hermione shopping if that's what Hermione wants to do, I wouldn't want to deprive Emma of a mother and daughter day out. I'm sure I wouldn't want Hermione to wear anything that Emma didn't approve of. It's just that we have several weddings and delayed wedding receptions to attend this summer and I want Hermione to have the dresses she wants for them," Harry backed down.

"You needn't worry Dad, these are wizarding world weddings and fashion for witches is far more conservative than muggle fashion. I'm sure you'll approve of the dresses I choose even if Harry was paying for them," Hermione retorted amused.

Daniel huffed as his wife grinned at him. "I'm sure even if Harry was buying the dresses for wear in our world that Hermione would still be the one choosing the dresses dear, and I trust her not to buy anything too inappropriate for a young married woman her age. I finish early tomorrow so we'll go shopping then."

"Harry's coming with us, he needs a suit to wear for muggle events as well as some new shirts or ties to match my dresses," Hermione replied smiling.

"Of course, Harry can come," Emma Granger said smiling wickedly at the thought.

Emma thought she'd have to teach Harry how to shop with a wife or girlfriend, last time they'd been shopping was for him to buy a new wardrobe which he'd done with minimal fuss or indecision rather a determination to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, but Harry already had plenty of patience when it came to Hermione trying dresses on and dithering between her choices, he told her clearly what he liked about each dress she tried on and never said anything negative about any of them. You've been shopping together before now.

"Yes ma'am, Hermione's my best friend, we go to Hogsmeade together most of the time. There's a book shop there she loves," Harry replied.

They only managed to buy two dresses before Harry had his suit fitting appointment and he stood slightly alarmed as the male assistant measured him up in his underwear while Hermione and Emma chose fabrics and the cut for him. The only choice he was offered was whether he wanted a waistcoat or not. He thought that he did, the suit would fit better in the wizarding world with a waistcoat though he asked whether it would be better to get one to match Hermione's dress, and was disappointed to be told quite firmly that he would be wearing a matching tie.

After the appointment Emma took them to yet another shop to try yet more dresses and was surprised not to hear a single complaint from Harry, even when he was left outside on a seat as the two Granger women did some personal shopping, going into Victoria's secret where Emma picked out the right underwear for each of the dresses and Hermione shocked her mother a little by buying a couple of other things she thought Harry might appreciate.

"We will be sharing a room this summer," Hermione said firmly.

"Harry didn't say anything when I showed him to the guest room the other night," Emma commented.

"No, I asked him not to. I felt that the discussion should come from me but I did join him in the guest room last night," Hermione replied.

"Is this about Harry having nightmares when he sleeps on his own like he did at Christmas, or has your relationship progressed to become sexual? Or are you just hoping it will?" Emma asked.

"We both sleep better together but yes our relationship is romantic, other than that what I do with my husband in our bed at night is really none of your business. Rest assured we are taking adequate precautions against pregnancy and he does nothing that I don't want him to," Hermione said bluntly.

"You were happy not to share a bed at Christmas," Emma reminded her.

"Not really but we were afraid Dad was going to kick Harry out if we pushed it and Harry was desperate that I spend Christmas with my family," Hermione replied. "You've had a chance to get used to the fact that I'm married now. So, it shouldn't be an issue."

"And if it is?" Emma demanded.

"As we told you at Christmas, Harry owns a house in London, it needs some work done to make it truly liveable but we could clear one bedroom, bathroom and the kitchen and camp out while we clean out the rest," Hermione replied trying to make it sound casual and less like a threat.

"You're blackmailing me?" Emma asked angrily.

"Not at all, just letting you know that unlike at Christmas where Harry was desperate for us to stay so I could spend Christmas with my family and I was willing to compromise to keep you all happy, we do have other options if you'd prefer us not to stay with you," Hermione replied. "We won't be offended and we'll be in town so we can still come for dinner and spend time with you when you have a day off and just sleep elsewhere. Harry wants to spend some time at his house in London anyway getting the house in order for when we finish school but we can come and go and still stay at home if you want us to, we've also offered to tutor a friend's wife for her OWLs so we'll be travelling back and forth to Yorkshire a couple of times a week which will be more convenient from a magical house. We might also be invited to stay with friends for a while this summer."

"Where exactly is this house, is it in a decent area? Or is it in a magical enclave?" Emma asked.

"Well no, it's surrounded by muggle houses and it's not really what I'd call a great area, it's within about half an hours walk east of King's Cross station. Though I think it's an area that will be starting to be gentrified fairly soon it hadn't been when we were there last summer, but the wards will keep us perfectly safe inside the house," Hermione replied unconcerned.

"But not necessarily safe as you come and go," Emma pointed out.

"We don't need to come and go the muggle way if we think that it's too dangerous or late at night, we can use the floo at the Leaky Cauldron or the station, and that's the way we'd travel to Yorkshire to see Neville and Elsie," Hermione replied.

"Would it be possible to get this house put on the floo network?" Emma asked.

"I don't know, it's probably more likely while Harry's staying with us but I don't exactly want to tell the ministry where he's staying," Hermione replied, realising that having the floo installed in her name would also reveal her muggle parent's address to the ministry floo regulation department, which was knowledge of a vulnerability that she didn't trust them to have.

"I will have to talk it over with your father but I would like you to stay with us for most of the summer. You're away so much during the school year that it feels like you've gone and grown up while we weren't looking," Emma said a little sadly.

"I miss you too Mum," Hermione said hugging her mother while Harry smiled at her from behind her mother's back.

Emma was surprised to find that in the end Harry's patience with dress shopping for Hermione exceeded both Hermione's and her own, even when they became frustrated he was still upbeat, positive that the perfect dress was only one more shop away and insistent that Hermione not settle for a dress that she didn't really like. Finally they had four muggle dresses that Hermione loved and Emma approved of, with the shoes and accessories she needed to go with them and Harry had his shirts and matching ties though he would have to come back in a couple of days for a final suit fitting. They headed home, all more than satisfied with the way the shopping trip had gone.

Daniel was interested and when Hermione modelled the dresses for him he had to admit there wasn't anything objectionable in any of them other than the fact that they made his little girl look too grown up, with their conservative hems and necklines perhaps even more so than the tight, too short, low cut sort of dresses he'd been worried about.

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